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Friday, December 11, 2015

Owls & Paisley – Notebooks and Cards

Owls & Paisley – Notebooks and Cards

By Judi Kauffman

A big thank you to
StencilGirl Products for inviting me back as a Guest Designer.

I thought it would
be fun to see how two of my favorite stencils, Paisley Floral Repeat and Three Owls and a Branch, would work together, as well as each on its own. At first
glance, they don’t seem like a logical combination, but there are elements in
the two that felt like they were designed for each other – for example,
scalloped shapes in the owls’ faces and feathers, scalloped shapes within the
paisley patterns. This isn’t surprising, given that they came from the same
person, Jessica Sporn. I always find her style and the level of detail she puts
into her stencils so appealing!

I chose waterproof,
colorfast Shimmer Sheetz for the owls and made notebooks and cards, but you can
take this project in any number of directions: Art journals, canvases or shadow
boxes, party decorations, and so much more.

Instructions:

1. Glue textured
handmade paper to the front and back covers of several inexpensive composition
books. Leave some of them plain; stencil on others.

2. Stencil the
paisley pattern with Emperor’s Gold acrylic paint, followed by a slightly
offset repeat of the paisley design in Black Green. Done! You have in hand a handsome
journal to tuck into a tote or keep bed-side.

5. Using
double-sided adhesive tape to secure them, add the flat owls to a paper-covered
composition book. Done! You have in hand a simple journal for doodling and
jotting random thoughts.

6. Better yet:
Combine the owls with a stenciled composition book, as shown in the photo
above.

7. Or add the owls
to stenciled cardstock backed with a piece of poster board for a sturdy flat
card to display on an easel or frame behind glass, as shown above.

8. For the owls
shown in the cards above, use alcohol-based inks instead of acrylic paints. Add
texture, dimension, and detail to the cut out owls as follows: Use a craft
knife to scrape and ‘draw’ lines on the feathers, to cut around the bottom of
the feathers and the bottom half of the beak. Bend beak and feathers upward,
bend claws downward for dimension. Place the owls on a soft fabric-covered
mouse pad and use ball stylus tools in various sizes to press dots into the
Shimmer Sheetz, and an awl or piercing tool for another level of detail. Below
is a close-up of the feathers, before the owl was cut out:

9. Stencil some
leaves with Black Green paint. Cut them out.

10. Position the owl
so it is sitting on a long twig and holding a shorter twig in its beak. Add the
leaves to the branch near the owl’s head. Use double-sided adhesive tape for
the flat layers, Tombow Power Adhesive Tabs for the dimensional layers.

12. Tip: Cards with
twigs and dimensional gems should be hand-delivered or mailed in a box. They
are too thick for standard envelopes and the twigs might not survive in a
padded envelope.

13. Below are two
close-ups of another owl, this one with flat center-hole button eyes rather
than gems, along with a repeat of the project photo shown at the start of this
post so you don’t have to scroll back to see it again: